Merry Christmas for all?

I grew up with Christmas and love carols and identify completely with the exasperated mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, which I listen to as much as the rest of the family will let me get away with during the interval between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I even like the super-corny “Let it Be Christmas” as sung by Alan Jackson, because I like the peace and love around the world message.

I know that the dominant culture in the US and at school celebrates Christmas and that we get a much smaller dose of it here than we would in cities and towns in many of our home countries where the streetlights are all decorated and there is a huge lit Christmas tree at the head of the main shopping street and Christmas carols are played day and night. In Doha, outside of malls and certain international schools you would hardly know it is nearly Christmas. I imagine that it makes an international school seem like a safe haven in which to celebrate it but we need to be more careful.

"The diversity that includes more than 70 different nationalities provides limitless opportunities to foster international mindedness and cross-cultural understanding.”

–from the message from the director on the school’s website

I agree with the spirit of this statement completely, in evidence at our recent International Week, which included cultural presentations, opportunities for kids to wear their own national dress and to sample food from around the world.  And then Christmas hit. Besides the Christmas trees and Rudolf art projects a couple of things happened that didn’t sit quite right with me:

•        My daughter’s class went to the head of school’s office where they were read a book about Santa and ate Christmas cookies. 

I can’t be sure of all the details but she insisted that they didn’t talk about how it was from the head’s own family traditions at this time of year that she wanted to share with the preschoolers.

•        An elementary principal ended her weekly e-mail to us yesterday with “Happy National Day to our Qatari families” and “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” to everyone. 

Why didn’t they say “Merry Christmas to families who are celebrating” this holiday?

The emphasis on Christmas without qualifying it as celebrated by many but not all students makes me wonder about how seriously they take “international-mindedness” and “cross-cultural understanding.”  The camp at which I worked last summer, which is barely culturally diverse at all, appears to work harder on inclusion and cultural competence than one of the most highly-regarded international schools in Doha. 

An international school should be more careful with language.  I don’t want a ban on celebrating or mentioning holidays at school, but there should be more equally-applied recognition that holidays are cultural institutions and that everyone is welcome to celebrate them together as a means of exploring other cultures.